ON BEING SELFISH, 25 April 1999

Yesterday, oh! yesterday
I thought too much of me,
Of my own feelings so oft
Suppressed. My heart
Has hurt too many times
And when I now do speak
’Tis only hurt I see and
Never understanding.
But quiet now I rest
With thoughts of those
Who’ve gone before,
Of saints whose lives
Were giving; did they
Never feel like me?
And how do my small
Cares compare with refugees
Who walk in dreamlike
State, not knowing any
Future, only pain and
Pain and death? Like
Soldiers slain on fields afar
And sailors drowned in vasty
Seas? Begone my foolish
Cares, my wants, my hurts,
And come my joys and loves,
Family and friends, and you, my God.

For more information on these poems, contact edmund@balnaves.org